(28-03-2017 04:55 PM)Leerob Wrote: One technique I found useful for myself is basically to know reality from dream because my lucid dreams are crazy realistic.

Our theory is that because people regain some of their critical thinking abilities and access to memories when they become lucid, the dream images almost automatically become more realistic as well. That's why some people confuse their lucid dreams with literal OBEs or other paranormal type experiences.

My wife found trying to float in the air a good reality test once she thought she might be dreaming, though even that doesn't always work.

I was never a frequent enough lucid dreamer to see any kind of negative effects from interfering with my normal sleep patterns, but my wife was. She had to give up the WILD (wake initiated lucid dream) technique because of it. Of course that is the technique most associated with producing OBE type lucid dreams.

I've had lucid dreams, though I generally can't influence them. And I also tend to have extremely vivid dreams, easily activated by melatonin. A lot of the dreams that I remember are awful/horrific nightmares or anxiety dreams. The anxiety dreams are useful because sometimes I'm not aware that my anxiety is building; having an anxiety dream often leads me to make a few changes in my life to try to relax more.

I have a lot of narrated, multi character dreams where I'm several of the characters. Sometimes one of the characters that's also me dies but I'm able to watch it and narrate the story at the same time. Weird?

(28-03-2017 05:46 PM)Jay Vogelsong Wrote: Our theory is that because people regain some of their critical thinking abilities and access to memories when they become lucid, the dream images almost automatically become more realistic as well.

Often the only way I stumble into lucidity is by recognizing an absurdity. Last one triggered when I realized the brother I was talking to was dead. I said, "Wait a second, you're dead." His response, "So? What's your point?"

There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. -Camus

(28-03-2017 05:59 PM)GirlyMan Wrote: Often the only way I stumble into lucidity is by recognizing an absurdity. Last one triggered when I realized the brother I was talking to was dead. I said, "Wait a second, you're dead." His response, "So? What's your point?"

(28-03-2017 07:43 PM)Jack Hammer Wrote: I don't get lucid dreams anymore hardly. I have a question. Have any of you been in a dream knowing while in it that you were dreaming?

That is the definition of a lucid dream: a dream in which you realize you are dreaming.

What is really interesting is the reverse. In our regular dreams we don't realize we are only dreaming. No matter how bizarre and unreal our dreams, we still think it's all real somehow and respond to it accordingly. That actually accounts for a lot of our reactions -- and for dream content as well, if dreaming is largely controlled by the dreamer's conscious focus.

Working with lucid dreamers, Ursula Voss of Frankfort University was able to show that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reactivated when dreamers became lucid. That makes lucidity a hybrid state, since that part of the brain, which controls self-awareness and short-term memory access, is typically deactivated during ordinary dreaming.

(28-03-2017 04:55 PM)Leerob Wrote: I read of people who used lucid dreams for therapeutic reasons. I also read of people who were using it to kinda speak to themselves unfiltered. Because you know how when you try to think about certain things to yourself, some other stuff popps up in your mind and you just can't focus. Well some people use lucid dreams to have that focus to speak to themselves and figure stuff out. I want to try that but I am a little bit scared of what's in the shaddows of my mind and I think that is why it didn't work so far for me.

I do sometimes use my lucid dreams to take-out my frustrations after a bad day, my go to tends to be zombie apocalypse-ish, but I do think you have to be careful, this is your mind your playing with after all.

I do have an "alter-ego" so to speak. I think she represents my subconscious, she looks like me (if I were female), she doesn't have a name (cause she is me) and she doesn't speak, but she "talks" to me "telepathically". I've gone years without dreaming about her, but when I do I know it's not gonna be play time as usual. I will be lucid but will have very little control over the dreams she's in. My brain's way of saying you've got an issue to work on.

A friend in the hole"I'll be back when I want it...not when I need it." - Hawkeye "If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are." - Captain Picard3

Here's an example of a lucid dream with flying, some nice imagery, a not-so-lucid rationalization of dream bizarreness, and a dream experiment:

February 7, 1990
I was high above the ground, looking down at a snow-covered landscape. I began to fall. Then, recognizing the situation, I realized I was in a dream. I turned the fall into a flight, just as in the classic example of lucid dreaming technique. To my surprise I didn’t wake up. Instead the scene sharpened in clarity. I flew down a snow-covered, sunlit street, which turned into Wildwood Lane in Columbus where I once lived. My attention was drawn to the patterns of shadow and sunlight across the snow caused by the natural contours of land and street, by tire tracks, and by footprints. It was beautiful and marvelously detailed. I landed on top of my old home. I grabbed onto the chimney to steady myself (because of the ice and snow on the slant of the roof). Looking over the top of the house and around the neighborhood, I was amazed by the detail with which I could visualize the dream—far beyond my ordinary waking abilities of visualization. I decided to land, so I let go of the chimney and dropped over the edge of the roof. The scene changed and I landed in the driveway of my old Mentor home. The season had changed—there were deep green leaves on the trees. I looked to the front of the house and saw several pieces of furniture (an antique cabinet and an old sewing machine) which had been left outside the door. I speculated they must have been left behind when my parents moved, and someone had put them out in the hope they would be picked up someday. I noticed a large sign next to the door. I decided to see whether I could read with any greater facility while dreaming once I was ALREADY lucid. As I walked over to the sign I thought to myself I probably should be able to read it, since my ability to concentrate was now so much greater than in a normal dream. To my surprise, however, I couldn’t read a single word. I noticed there were even backward letter E’s here and there. I turned my attention to the mailbox and found within it several canceled checks which I had originally written. I then turned back to the driveway and jumped into the air to fly away. As I flew toward the blue sky between the trees I began to wake. I struggled for a moment, trying to concentrate on the dream, then woke completely